About Police Body Armor: A High-Level Guide

You may be familiar with police body armor as a general concept - it “protects our protectors” - but are you familiar with the nuanced levels of protection offered according to the “level” of armor?

This short guide will take a closer look at what the purpose of these types of armor is and what the ratings mean.

Broadly speaking, police body armor is a special type of body armor that protects law enforcement officers from impact, blunt force trauma, sharp objects, and, depending on the level of protection offered, from small arms fire.

There are two main types of police body armor, made from soft ballistic and hard ballistic materials. Soft ballistic armor made from elastic textiles can help absorb light impacts and in some cases can protect against sharp objects and even lighter-caliber handgun cartridges, offering a light degree of ballistic protection.

Hard ballistic body armor takes the form of advanced ceramics, tempered, hardened steel, or even special polymer compounds in the form of rifle plates, and can protect against more severe impacts and in some cases, against higher-velocity bullets, like some rifle rounds.

Effectively the most important thing you need to consider when evaluating police body armor is the rated level of protection it offers.

To understand this, we need to understand the role of the NIJ, or National Institute for Justice, which prescribes ratings for police body armor according to the level of protection it is intended to offer.

To start with police body armor, we start at the NIJ’s Level IIA rating. This offers the least amount of protection and is soft and lightweight enough to be worn underneath clothing. Even though it’s light, it’s potentially capable of stopping some handgun rounds, like 9mm and .40 S&W.

However, because it offers such a low degree of protection compared to other similar ratings, it’s not commonly encountered nowadays.

The next step up is Level II - which we offer here in the form of Safariland body armor - that is roughly the same weight and thickness as IIA armor. It is also highly flexible and can be worn underneath clothing, but offers considerably higher protection - from 9mm to cartridges comparable to .357 Magnum. As a result Level II police body armor has largely eclipsed IIA armor.

Next we have Level IIIA soft armor, which is the last level of soft ballistic body armor before you progress to hard ballistic plate armor. Level IIIA body armor can nonetheless offer a good degree of protection against powerful handgun rounds like .357 Sig and .44 Magnum.

In order to protect against higher-powered rifle rounds, you need to get into Level III hard armor. This armor consists of metal or hard composite plates that are hard and durable enough to absorb the energy of rifle rounds up to 7.62, including some jacketed steel rifle rounds. This type of armor is heavier and more restrictive than soft ballistic armor and designed to be used with a plate carrier.

Then we have the highest-rated NIJ police body armor available, which is Level IV rated hard armor. It is not particularly common among police officers and is largely reserved for front-line military personnel because it is expensive, heavy, bulky, and must be worn over other clothing.

However, it offers the highest degree of protection by far and NIJ Level IV hard ballistic body armor is rated to offer the wearer good protection against armor-piercing rounds up to .30 caliber.

The efficacy of police body armor is proportional to its NIJ rating, as indicated in the section above. Also, it’s not just the level of protection it offers, but other factors, such as how conveniently it can be worn, how comfortable it is, and how, if at all, it restricts the wearer’s range of motion.

All in all, however, Level II police body armor, which is likely the most common, can protect law enforcement officers against most common threats, such as light impacts, sharp objects, and small arms bullets.

For those of you that came here looking for a supplier of high-quality police body armor from a reputable brand and manufacturer, Kiesler Police Supply has you covered. We carry a variety of body armor and covert carriers in our catalog, and if you have any questions about ratings, qualifications or features, feel free to get in touch with one of our representatives about your needs and we’ll be more than happy to help.